


Unburdening

by ishipthemsogoddamnhard



Category: Hannibal (TV), Hannibal Extended Universe - Fandom, The Path (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, DogPath, Eventual Smut, Hannibal Season 3, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, New Pairing, Post-Episode: s03e07 Digestivo, Rare Pairings, Slow Build, Slow Burn, The Path Season 2, Will and Cal are NOT related, You can never have too much Hugh Dancy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-23
Updated: 2017-03-23
Packaged: 2018-10-09 15:46:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10415514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ishipthemsogoddamnhard/pseuds/ishipthemsogoddamnhard
Summary: After Hannibal is arrested in 3x07 Digestivo, Will isn't coping and decides to relocate. He ends up living near the Meyerist compound and meets Cal, who wants to help him fix his 'damage' as much as Will just wants to forget. Their relationship is tense at best, and that tension turns sexual through their mutual need for closeness. However what they ultimately want may not be each other...AKA: A Double Dancy Orgy in which Cal happens before Molly ;)





	

**Author's Note:**

> I would dearly love to credit whoever made [THIS ART](https://twitter.com/imak4tiegirl/status/838734342721572864) as I cannot find the owner ANYWHERE and it inspired this Hugh-fest!
> 
> Disclaimers:
> 
> 1\. This is NOT incest they just both happen to be Hugh because who doesn't want double Hugh?  
> 2\. It will end up back at canon so if you are in the anti-rarepair camp don't worry, just get involved!  
> 3\. I NEED A SHIP NAME - the shortlist is Willpath, Dogpath or Calgram <3

Will woke up feeling rough as hell, for maybe the hundredth time since that first night Hannibal was locked away, and noticed the warm weight of Winston sleeping at his feet. It wasn’t the first morning he had imagined this was the form of...someone else there with him while still half-asleep. He buried his deepest, darkest thoughts a little further every day, reminding himself over and over that Hannibal was where he should be, that he should be proud that he caught him. Drinking away his self-hatred over the truth was only making him sick. Alana was right - he wasn’t living anymore, he was only existing. It had been six months to the day and Will could stand no more.

 

Will sighed, showered and drank coffee while plans formed and crystallised as he quickly got more attached to the idea. He wrote a short email to the lawyer who settled his father’s estate, the house included, enquiring about selling without having to actually be here. After sending it right away, before he could change his mind, Will sat turning his phone in his hands. Hesitating though he knew this was the right thing, the only thing, to do. He was leaving this place for good this time. He unlocked it again, found Alana’s number and stared at it for a moment. Too many memories, bittersweet and just plain bitter, were held in these walls that he used to feel so safe within. Will hit ‘call’ and tapped at the table until she picked up. 

 

“Hi.” Alana said, a little wary but mostly confused. It had been a good few weeks now since she last showed up at Will’s, still unsure whether to tell him about her newly discovered pregnancy. They still weren’t on the same level of friendship as they had before Florence. Before everything. He had said all the right things but was sullen as always, and he certainly never called her first. “How are you?” She tried not to sound as worried as she felt. Hannibal did nothing at first but find elaborate ways to determine if she had seen him, and it had finally seemed like it was stopping...

 

Will sighed. “Clearer.” he said honestly. “I’m leaving Wolf Trap.” He wasn’t in the right frame of mind to sugar coat it, or to chat.

 

“Oh.” Alana was taken aback at this sudden, life-changing decision. Her gut reaction was to be a little sad to see him go, though she knew in her heart he needed this. It was probably for the best that he forget and she gathered herself. “Where are you gonna go? Do you need help with the dogs?” She asked with a small smile, knowing now why he called, aside from just to let her know.

 

“Uh...yes. Please. I don’t really know, maybe further up north, not sure yet. I’m taking Winston, but the rest...I thought maybe…” Will babbled.

 

Alana cut him off. “We’ll take them, until I can find homes. It’s OK, Will.” Maybe she was giving him subconscious permission to go with her choice of words. He appreciated it.

 

“Thank you.” Will swallowed. “For everything.” It wasn’t enough. She arranged to come and pick them up in a few days, Monday, and they hung up. 

 

Will made himself some breakfast and then spent a good chunk of Friday and some of Saturday trying to find a new place online. What he said to Alana about moving north seemed reasonable. Upstate New York maybe...after all he liked new places, it was what he knew, and going south was just heading towards complicated feelings not away from them. Will sent a few enquiries - rental places until he knew what was what - and found somewhere that would do while he got on his feet.

 

After his successful property search he filled his weekend with spoiling the dogs - playing with them out in sun, bathing them, cooking them special dinners from scratch. Saying his quiet goodbyes, ones that they could never really understand or return, but still it felt like leaving his family - his children. Another thing Alana had been right about. And Hannibal too… The thought made his mind flinch, and he forced himself to start packing rather than drinking.

 

*

 

Monday was a blur of taking crap he didn’t want or need to the garbage dump, getting a bag of dog stuff together for Alana and sitting on his porch with a beer - moderation and all that - watching them potter about their garden for unknowingly the last time. His last time too, and his impulsiveness wavered for a second. Why should he leave his quiet corner or the world? His pets? He looked around him for unspoken answers and was immediately taken back to when he sat on that step waiting for Hannibal, after he coughed up Abigail’s ear. The team swarming his yard as he was arrested. The window Randall Tier smashed through to kill him. The place where Hannibal had knelt, snow melted away now, as he surrendered... Will snorted. No, he was going, that was for sure. 

 

With perfect timing, Alana’s car appeared along the road and Will stood to go meet her, stretching. She had brought one of the Verger vehicles, with room for the dogs, the simple domesticity of this making Will think how funny life was sometimes. He wandered down the steps, watching with a half-smile as she got out to be greeted by the swarm - of course they knew her from when she took them in before. She looked up at him while absently petting whatever dog she could get. “I wasn’t sure you’d still be going, but you look...like a man with his mind made up.” She smiled a little sadly.

 

Will sighed and raised his brows. “I am.” Will spread his hands. “There’s not much here I like being around these days...present company all excluded.” He looked away and started back towards the house.

 

She looked suitably impressed with his, albeit awkward, joke. “Good to hear a little of the old Will back.” Alana made to follow him. 

 

Will pressed his mouth into a line, not quite sold. “Well. He will be.” He said, his tone resembling positive hopefulness for the first time in months.

 

After they had gotten a leash on them all, and packed them into the car with a pat on the head, they said their slightly tentative goodbyes. Will shut Winston in the house to avoid a separation anxiety issue that would break his heart and walked out with her to stuff the bag full of chew toys and microchip paperwork and bowls and doggy coats into her passenger seat. “Thanks again for all this.” He said softly.

 

“I really hope a new setting will do you good, Will. We both do.” Alana hesitated, still not sure telling him all the baby stuff would help at this point. “If you’re ever around, give us a call.” She said. A closed lipped smile was all he could give her in return.

 

They both knew that, barring something exceptional, he wouldn’t be back. They made a mutual but unconscious decision to keep it light, the weight of the finality too much for either of them at this point. Leave it all open - nothing asked, nothing promised. Waving casually, she drove away, and on the way home Alana shed a few quiet tears for the fate of her seemingly quiet friend. She blamed it on the hormones. 

 

Will set about packing his own car as soon as she had gone, not allowing the loss of the dogs and Winston’s puzzled whining to get in his head while he had stuff to do. He told the landlord on the phone he’d meet him at the new place around 8pm, so he couldn’t afford to mope. 

 

Before long he was locking the door of the place he had called home for six years...where had they gone? Why did every memory that seemed to matter only come from the most recent one? Will sighed deeply as he took a last look at it all before climbing into his car and leaving that surreal chapter of his life behind. 

 

*

Will made good time on his drive up and his landlord seemed pleasant enough - older, fairly quiet and like he wouldn’t try to be a pain about anything. Will was relieved since it meant he could pretty much just get on with it and keep to himself as much as he felt like. Also the man, Jake his name was, petted Winston so he was a dog person, another good sign. Will took what was necessary inside, deciding to get stuck into all that in the morning, and fed his faithful pet. He made up Winston’s bed, and his own before taking him out for a walk. It would be a good way to get to know his new neighbourhood. 

 

The street was quaintly suburban, green and lush and near woods. It was less isolated than his old property but there was still a fair distance between the houses dotted along the winding sidewalk. With it being the height of the summer it was only twilight, despite the late hour. There was light and occasional sound coming from most of the houses, though he hadn’t actually encountered any people yet, and Will had to admit there was a serenity to this place. What was Hannibal doing in his cell? Tormenting Chilton? Drawing? Writing? Perhaps to him…goddamn he wanted a drink, but then he ran the risk of re-reading the other letters. From before. Will rubbed his face as Winston tugged impatiently at his leash, he hadn’t realised he was just standing there looking at the road.

 

“Hey. You look a little...lost, everything ok?” Will turned to see who had addressed him out of nowhere, and saw a man only a little older than himself, with dark hair cut short. He had quite clearly been out running from his clothes and the way he was breathing. He was taking the earbuds out of his ears, regarding him with earnest concern, too earnest, in a way that made Will prickle instinctually. This guy made way too much eye contact, and his demeanour reminded Will of self-important camp counsellors that tried to ‘coax’ him out of his shell as a kid. 

 

“Fine…thanks.” Will said wearily, not quite meeting the man’s oddly familiar blue eyes. “Just heading home.” He twitched his cheek in a way he hoped would pass for polite and took a step to encourage the dog to follow. The guy had crossed his arms across his chest and didn’t seem interested in moving out of the way. Will glanced up at his tanned face and saw his brow furrowed in scrutiny.

 

“Home round here? I don’t think I’ve seen you before.” He smiled inquisitively at Will but there wasn’t a bit of him that felt it was sincere. Will flicked his eyes between that false expression and studying the eye logo on the man’s pale blue t-shirt. 

 

He licked his lip a little irritated. “I just moved into…”

 

“Ohhh, Jake’s place? We’re practically neighbours.” The man cut him off as he extended a hand. “Cal Roberts. We own the compound at the end of the road.” He introduced himself with a tilt of his head. Will regarded the hand warily before shaking it. We? Compound? Come to think of it he did see a big security gate on his way past earlier. Maybe he _was_ a camp counsellor.

 

“Will.” He replied. A last name would just lead to intrusive questions if he happened to Google him. Luckily this was the moment Winston chose to whine loudly, frustrated with standing around listening to human small talk. “I’ll see you around.” He said, grateful for the excuse to leave the spotlight of Cal’s gaze.

 

“Oh I’m sure. Feel free to come see what we do and meet some people, Will. We can help you find your way.” He fished in his back pocket and handed Will a card, the same blue colour and same eye symbol as his clothes, before he was suddenly off running again. Will simply nodded and started back the other way. Cal seemed so open and welcoming, but there was just something about the way the it sat that made Will feel it papered over some deep cracks. He looked down at the card in his hand as he walked, ‘Meyerism’ it read. A cult. Really? He shook his head, incredulous. Did he really seem that damaged or was this Cal always so presumptuous?

 

 _Imagine what Hannibal would make of this prick_ , Will thought to himself and pushed the automatic association down hard. He sure knew all about people with person suits to hide all th ugly parts, no question he knew about that, and brainwashing too. He wanted no part of that shit again - not now, not ever. Will binned the card and went straight to sleep. He dreamt of finding his mailbox stuffed full of envelopes from Hannibal...all of which contained nothing but those weird eye symbols drawn in blood.

**Author's Note:**

> None of you are even surprised I'm writing this, don't lie...
> 
> Tags will be updated as we go *looks innocent*


End file.
